Living On Hawaii Time

The husband was passing by the registration desk of our hotel on Tuesday afternoon when a woman who was checking in asked when the presidential debate would start. "It just ended," another guest told her.

This was our third visit to Hawaii, but it was the first time we got a little sense of what it's like to live three to six hours behind the rest of the country.

Maybe it sank in more this time because there was so much news happening -- the presidential race and the economic crisis, mainly.

The presidential debate was over by late afternoon and the stock market was closed by mid-morning. The first thing we'd check when we got up in the morning, on the TV or the Internet, was the stock market. A few hours after breakfast, we knew the final tally.

Weird, but sometimes a relief. We could go to the beach knowing it wasn't likely to get any worse for a while.